General Election 2010: top heads back Tory pledge to free state schools

Conservative plans to allow schools to break free of local council control are
publicly endorsed today by some of the leading state head teachers in
England.

Parents face a fine for taking their children on holiday during term timePhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

7:00AM BST 27 Apr 2010

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 31 heads and governors back a Tory pledge to give high-performing state schools autonomy within months of a general election victory.

They will be allowed to convert into semi-independent academies as early as September this year if the Tories win, giving them more power over the curriculum, qualifications, staff, budgets and admissions.

One head teacher who signed the letter insisted radical reform was needed after more than a decade of being “baseball batted” by Labour bureaucracy.

The endorsement of the principal Tory education policy will be seized on by the Conservatives as proof that they have won over state school head teachers after decades of hostility towards the party. The letter comes weeks after business leaders wrote to The Daily Telegraph in support of the Tory pledge largely to reverse Labour’s planned rise in National Insurance, an intervention that went on to dominate the opening days of the election campaign.

The head teachers’ comments will also be seen as an embarrassing blow to Gordon Brown and Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, who have attempted to present the Conservatives as the enemies of state education by claiming they would severely cut school budgets.

Labour will point out that the signatories represent only a fraction of the more than 20,000 state schools in England. But this is the first time state school heads have spoken out collectively in favour of Tory policy.

The statement is signed by Paul Evans, the head of Colyton Grammar School, Devon, which was ranked the third best school in the country in last year’s GCSE league tables, and Shaun Fenton, the chairman of the Grammar School Heads’ Association and head of Pate’s Grammar in Cheltenham, which was in the top 40.

Other signatories include the head of Watford Grammar for Girls and governors from Tollbar Business and Enterprise College, Grimsby, which were named among England’s best-performing comprehensives last year.

“The Conservative Party tells us that it believes that to ensure a high quality education for all pupils, head teachers need to have control over how they run their school,” says the letter. “As head teachers and governors with years of experience, we know that real freedom combined with rigorous accountability is vital to raise standards.

“The Conservative Party has said that if it forms the next government it will allow all schools to apply for academy-style freedoms.”

The letter adds that “many schools, including ours, would be likely to apply for these freedoms”.

Under Tory plans, any highly ranked state primary or secondary school would be allowed to convert into an academy with immediate effect. The party has pledged to legislate within weeks of taking power to sweep away restrictions on the creation of new schools.

It will remove the power of councils to veto the opening of academies, which are run independently of local authorities, giving them more freedom to hire staff, set wages and alter the curriculum.

One report last week suggested that as many as 500 schools could break free of council control by September — more than tripling the number of academies opened under Labour.

Mr Fenton said: “I haven’t been convinced by Tory education policy before. Now I am totally convinced by Michael Gove. The Conservative Party proposes to trust successful teachers, to deliver radical change where parental expectations are not being met and, above all, to put the needs of children above local authority vested interests. ”

Mike Spinks, the head of Urmston Grammar School, near Manchester, who signed the letter, said: “I do feel passionately that we are doing much wrong in the system that the Labour government have baseball batted us with over many years now.”

Today’s letter is signed by members of the Foundation, Aided Schools and Academies National Association , which represents 1,000 state schools. It described itself as non-political and insisted its demands for more school freedom have already been put to Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

The comments were welcomed by the Tories, who said it proved top schools backed their plans for more independence in the state system.

Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many top heads support our plans to give them greater freedom over how they do their jobs.”

Last night Labour seized on comments by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which said the Tories faced “a major challenge” to find the money “to fund an expansion in the supply of school places”.